Holy Saturday

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Good Friday

“You must accustom yourself to true views about the Gospel. You must see that, all through, it is a religion of suffering, of mortification, of self-sacrifice, of consuming love, of self-forgetting zeal, of self-crucifying union, in a word, it is the religion of the Cross and the Crucified. You must get well into you the truth so unpalatable to nature that self-denial is of its essence, and that it must be daily self-denial, not only that we may be perfect, but even that we may be our dear Lord’s disciples.” ~Fr. Frederick W. Faber, excerpt from Growth in Holiness


Holy Thursday

“The Bread that we need each day to grow in eternal life, makes of our will a docile instrument of the Divine Will; sets the Kingdom of God within us; gives us pure lips, and a pure heart with which to glorify his holy name.” ~Edith Stein

Wednesday, Holy Week

“But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” ~St. Paul, Galatians 6:14

Tuesday, Holy Week

“The Cross is the word through which God has responded to evil in the world. Sometimes it may seem as though God does not react to evil, as if he is silent. And yet, God has spoken, he has replied, and his answer is the Cross of Christ: a word which is love, mercy, forgiveness. It is also reveals a judgment, namely that God, in judging us, loves us. Remember this: God, in judging us, loves us. If I embrace his love then I am saved, if I refuse it, then I am condemned, not by him, but my own self, because God never condemns, he only loves and saves.” ~Pope Francis

Monday, Holy Week

“Let us not think that because we are on this road of contemplation our passions will have calmed down once and for all. We would be mistaken if we thought that our longing to seek Christ, and the fact that we are meeting him and getting to know him and enjoy the sweetness of his love, makes us incapable of sinning. Though your own experience will tell you, let me nevertheless remind you of this truth. Satan, God’s enemy and man’s, does not give up nor does he rest. He maintains his siege, even when the soul is ardently in love with God. The devil knows that it’s more difficult for the soul to fall then, but he also knows that, if he can manage to get it to offend its Lord even in something small, he will be able to cast over its conscience the serious temptation of despair.” ~Saint Josemaria Escriva, Friends of God, #303)

Saturday, Lent V

It is truly right to call You Blest, O Theotokos the Ever-Blessed, You who are Most Pure and All-Immaculate and the Mother of our God. More Honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare More Glorious than the Seraphim, who without corruption did give birth to God the Logos/Word, the very Theotokos, You do we magnify. Amen

Friday, Lent V

“I have experienced many human weaknesses, many human frailties, and I still experience them. But we need to use them. We need to work for Christ with a humble heart, with the humility of Christ. He comes and uses us to be his love and compassion in the world in spite of our weaknesses and frailties.” ~St. Teresa of Calcutta

Thursday, Lent V

“Do not be despondent if you unexpectedly fall. The Lord may let us fall to teach us, to help us realize our own weakness so that with greater faith we would turn to the Almighty, Who is capable of filling our weakness with His Power. Taming the passions is the work of our whole life; in this warfare, we learn to see our absolute weakness and fragility, and the mighty power of God, Who can by a wave of His hand raise us from the abyss of sin and passions. The Lord may let us suffer much from both ourselves and our neighbor to help us acquire the divine virtue of humility.” ~Archimandrite John Krestiankin

Wednesday, Lent V

“Lord, grant us to imitate life in the heavens, so that we may also wish the same things that You do. So, help our tired mood that wishes to do Your will yet is hindered by body ailment. Reach out Your hand to those who are eager to run, but are forced to limp. The soul has wings but is weighed down by the flesh, she wishes to be agile towards the heavens yet is dragged towards secular things from the passions of the flesh. However, when Your help, my God, is at hand, that which is extremely impossible becomes possible. Therefore, may Your will also be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” ~St. John Chrysostom